Nassau Officer Slain in Apparent Friendly Fire

MASSAPEQUAPARK, NY – A Nassau County Police officer was shot and killed on Saturday night in Massapequa Park, New York, according to a hospital spokesman.

Police are not revealing any information about the incident but initial reports claimed that the plain clothes officer was shot by another policeman by mistake.

Special operations officers had been called to the Long Island suburb after reports that a man had been seen carrying weapons in the area.

The plain clothes officer had spotted the suspect and was reportedly trying to arrest him near the Long Island Rail line on Front Street when he was fatally wounded around 8.20pm.

The officer was transported to Nassau University Medical Center, where he died of his wounds.

The centre’s Public Affairs Director Shelley Lotenbergat announced that the as-yet unnamed officer was pronounced dead at 9.19pm.

While Nassau police would not confirm the ‘friendly fire’ reports, a spokesman did reveal that two other officers were sent to the hospital with ‘trauma-related’ injuries.

The suspect, who has also not been named and is believed to be in his twenties, was also shot and killed when he lunged at officers with knives.

NBC New York reported that the suspect had barricaded himself in a room of a house owned by his parents.

After evacuating all other residents from the property, officers entered to confront the suspect.

It was then that he lunged at the officers and, in the resulting melee, the officer was fatally shot.

Nassau County Police Lieutenant Kevin Smith told CBSNEWS: ‘What happened pretty much still remains a little bit unclear. But what we’ve determined so far is that, at one point, this individual exits that back bedroom, he begins to run at the police officers, he challenges them, he lunges at them with his arms up in the air, the officers are forced to defend themselves, and shoot in his direction.’

The New York Daily News reported that the officer might have been shot by a Metropolitan Transport Authority officer, as the shooting scene was near a rail station.

Police cordoned off several blocks around the scene of the shooting and are conducting a full investigation. A spokesman said more details would be released later today.

The officer’s death is the second for Nassau police this year. Highway patrolman Michael Califano was killed on February 5 when a truck slammed into his police cruiser in Old Westbury.

Prior to Califano’s death, no county officer had been killed in the line of duty since 1993.

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